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I can’t believe that it’s been a MONTH since I last blogged! That’s crazy! Obviously I’ve been busy. I’ve been studying for my History exam to get into the Student-Teaching Program. I put it off for quite awhile but now I have to schedule the test. Blah! I’m not looking forward to paying for the test ($95) nor taking the test.

In other news, July has been a busy month for us! I’m not sure why I tell myself at the end of every month that the next month will be less crazy. It’s never true! And now that the boys are older, it seems that we are more involved in stuff and go more! I miss those days when they were little that seemed to go on forever and we never went anywhere! lol!

We did summer camp:

C and L went to Boy Scout Camp for a week. It was C’s 3rd year of camp and L’s first. L didn’t think that he was going to like it, but when I saw him on Family Day he told me that he was having the time of his life! He learned so much and made a bunch of new friends! Also, C got tapped to be in the tribe of Mic-O-Say, which is a BIG DEAL when you are in Boy Scouts! His Mic-O-Say name is Eagle Man and he is currently a Brave. So proud of them!!!

While the older 2 boys were at Boy Scout camp, the younger 2 boys went to Cub Scout Day Camp, which was 2 days. They had a LOT of fun! This is K’s 5th and final year of Cub Scout camp (he’s a Webelo 2 now!) and E’s first year of Cub Scouts (he’s a Tiger Cub!). They got to do super fun stuff like FLY IN AN AIRPLANE that was “higher than a water tower” (E’s quote), build and shoot a pop bottle rocket, make a kite, shoot BB guns, sling shots and shoot a bow and arrow.

Lots of GREAT memories made and milestones met this week!

We gardened:

The weather hasn’t been that great to grow anything other than a weed but we have managed to have some tomatoes and our watermelon is going to town! E loves to work in the garden and one of his favorite things to do is to run out to the garden and check to see what new is growing! He keeps me updated at least once a day on how big the watermelons are getting. Ha!! We will have so much fun eating our organic goodies!

We were silly:

The middle 2 boys + 5 other boys played on a summer basketball team that I coached. We didn’t win any games but we had fun and got a little better at the game! We had a party to end the season. I kept it simple with just cupcakes, drinks and foam noodle swords. Who knew that foam noodle swords could occupy 10-11 year olds for over an hour?! They had a really good time!

The infamous blanket fort that the boys like to make. To really make it good and sturdy, you must rip off all the sheets! Ha! They were giggling and having a good time…plus they were a little quiet, so I had to see what they were up to! This blanket fort was highly advanced: 2 rooms and “air conditioned” (really just a blanket over a fan). lol! Boys are fun!

We went to the movies:

We saw “Jurassic World” in theatres and the boys loved it! This was E’s first full move and he did great sitting through it! Popcorn helped!

That’s been our July so far! We’re going to St. Louis soon and I can’t wait to share with you all of our adventures! Until next time, toot-a-loo!

I saw these beautiful wildflowers by the side of the road and had to stop to take a picture!

June is wrapping up and I can’t believe how quickly it has come and gone! We’ve had a busy month, even a busy week since I last posted! We’ve officially hit the hot days of summer and while it is nice to get some use out of those summer clothes, our air conditioner has been continuously running!

Last week was tournament week for Little League (C & L) as well as Minor League (K), so we were a busy bunch! The season ended well with Minor League winning second and Little League winning third.

Second place winners after a hard battle!

I’m really proud of all three boys and can’t believe that another baseball season is now behind us.

3rd place

Did you know that third place makes you silly?! Hahaha!

C enjoying the crisp pool water!E with his favorite pool toy!

We also have been to the pool and the library. Unfortunately, the weather has not allowed for us to go to the pool much, but when we went to the pool it was perfect! The water felt sooo good!

K very proud of his medal!The boys and my mom all geared up and ready for the 5K! The other boys had numbers too, but were on their back.Runners in action! Can you spot 3 of the 4 boys?

On Saturday, the health department put on a 5K for the Gooseberry Festival and the boys all ran it. Only E wasn’t able to finish it and while they all did well, K got THIRD in his age division! He is very proud of his medal!

On Tuesday, I took K to a super arcade called Power Play. It was a belated birthday present and this was the earliest that we could go due to the hectic baseball schedule. It was my first time every going and it was actually pretty fun! It’s not just an arcade, although it has a lot of arcade games. It has a mini bowling alley, laser tag, laser maze, bumper cars, a little roller coaster, a mini ferris wheel, a Tilt-A-Whirl and a Go Kart track (it was raining so we couldn’t do Go Karts) and a buffet. I was prepared to spend a little more, but then I saw a deal that if you went on a Tuesday AFTER 4pm, for $15 you could get the buffet, 1 hour of unlimited play and 40 points (for arcade games that gave you tickets for prizes). WHAT a deall!!

K extremely excited to finally go into PowerPlay! He felt like he had to wait forever to get to go!K concentrating on a game.

I can’t believe that all this happened in just ONE week! I wonder what will happen in the week to come?! The joys and surprises never end when your the mom of 4 boys! Yea!

Hello! I’m still a busy baseball mom! It’s tournament week, so baseball is winding down. Hopefully I can have some calm time at home in the next few weeks! Yesterday was INSANE! I got home late and went to bed around midnight because of a baseball game and getting stuff ready for the next day. THEN I got up at 5:30 to take C to football weights. I’m not sure if you knew this or not, but one of the worst things you can say to a teenage boy at 6am is “Did you remember to put on deodorant?”. Hahaha!

This is forbidden to speak of before 11am apparently.

After I took him to weights, I went back home and finished getting everyone ready to go in actual public. Went back 2 hours later and picked C up (with all the rest of the boys) and we went to town for K and E’s doctor appointment with our primary care doctor. K needed to get refills for his inhaler and E needed a follow up on his weight that we’ve been monitoring.

After the doctor appointment, we went home for about an hour and then headed to the city to visit with E’s neurologist. The older two boys stayed with my mom so they could get to their ballgame on time. The neurologist visit went well and he is now been seizure free for 6 months!! So, we had to celebrate! E got a giant ice cream cone from Burger King—only 50 cents!

Since there isn’t a Starbucks near where I live, I never miss an opportunity to stop in and get some of their yummy goodness. K wanted a mini frapp. He got a s’mores frappiccino and I got an iced mocha. Delish!

K’s first Starbucks!

Here are some other pictures that I took a few days ago. They are the Quiet Area at the library, one of my fave places to write letters! 😀 My local library is so awesome!

I’ve been noticing the signs of Spring everywhere lately! The grass is beginning to get more and more green and the trees are starting to send out little buds. Today as I was going to the car, I even saw some robins! Spring is truly here!

Hip hip hooray! The weather last week was so nice that I really am hating the cold weather that we have been having so far this week. Bleh! Bring back the warm! We love it!

I haven’t been up to anything spectacular. I feel like I’m busy all the time! This is what has happened in the last week:

Switched over to Straight Talk and got my first Smartphone

Worked

C has an asthma attack and had to go to the ER. (He’s fine now, just couldn’t get his breathing under control).

E accidentally locked my keys in my car on St. Patrick’s Day and I had to call the locksmith to come out and unlock it. $45 is what it cost!

E has been learning to read for some time now but it always seemed like it was such a chore for him. He fought reading and would act silly to get out of it. He knew the words but all of a sudden, it has clicked! My mom got these 2 books for him in the library and he is able to read both AND enjoys it!! He feels so grown up because he can read BOOKS! He reads with a good flow too! I’m so proud of him!

I wasn’t able to get a picture of him reading yet, but will try to remember to get one posted soon. He’s so excited about reading that the next time we go to the library, he will get his first library card and be able to check out books that he can read! I love this milestone and am so blessed to have watched each boy’s excitement at getting their own library card!

These books are perfect for new readers and help them build their confidence as a reader!

This picture is of the conference band that C participated in. You can’t really make out his face, so I put an arrow pointing to him.

He plays clarinet and tried out for a chair. Out of 13 clarinets, he earned 6th chair! Keep in mind that he’s only 12 and in 7th grade and was competing against other kids who were in 7-12th grades! Quite the accomplishment!! The band played back in January, but I wasn’t able to take a picture and just found this photo on the county paper’s website!

L & K are playing elementary basketball and have a pretty good team! They have only had 1 game so far and I tried to take a picture but it didn’t turn out very well. They play tonight, so hopefully I can get a better photo.

I read the following book for my Reading Challenge 2015. It was a fine romance but what I thought was the most interesting, was the fact that the characters were immigrants from Iran. I learned a lot about Iranian culture and how Iran was in the 1970 and how it is currently. It is categorized under “Book you can read in a day” because it was a quick read and it was a rare “free day” and I was actually to read more than a few pages! I chose the book because of something really cool that my library is doing, which is called “The Book Dating Game”. You choose a number from a bowl and whichever number you choose, that is the genre of book you have to get for your “date”. It was fun and I can’t wait to do it again!

Hello world! Spring has been teasing me lately! It will be cold, then turn warm. Saturday it was 42 degrees F! It made me start wanting to plan my ! I walked around and looked at my little orchard and they are starting to bud! 😀

In the meantime, life has been…normal. We had a bunch of snow the first part of February and we had a snow day! The boys and I built a giant snowman…or at least giant for us! We could barely lift the body and head!

That sun’s bright mom!Our snowman-like the pot for a hat?Better run!

The boys had a good Valentine’s Day! They each got a candy bouquet-the Junior class was selling them and so I bought each boy one. I also made heart shaped Rice Krispie treats with red sprinkles as a treat for the boys’ classes, but didn’t take a picture of them. Believe me, they didn’t last long!

Excited about getting a candy bouquet on Valentine’s Day!

I tried to take a picture of the other boys with theirs, but I think it was gone in 0.5 seconds! Haha! I also made appreciation cards for each of the elementary school boys’s teachers. I know it shouldn’t matter but I really meant what I said and I didn’t get a thank you or even an acknowledgement for giving them something. The cards were attached to a cookie that I bought from the Junior class.

Card I made for L’s teacher.Card I made for E’s teacher.Card I made for K’s teacher.

Also, I recently had the most amazing mail day! I got 7 pieces of mail all in one day! 2 were valentines and the rest were letters!! It totally MADE MY DAY! It’s the most mail I’ve ever received in one day!

BEST mail day EVER!

I got mail from: 4 LEP members (Sonnia in CA, Katy in the UK,https://sincerelykate.wordpress.com, Jenn from CA), 2 LetterMo participants (Ronda in OH, Rachel in CA) and one long-time penpal, Christa in VA. 😀

Hello friends! I haven’t posted in forever and I guess it’s because life has been a little bit boring around here. It’s a good thing because sometimes life gets so crazy that I can’t think straight! There’s been many nights where the boys and I just sit around and watch tv, read or play Uno. It’s been really simple and I can’t help but want the rest of the year to go like this!

We have had some excitement. The boys are getting some much needed haircuts! Here is a picture of C and K. E got a haircut last night but I don’t have a picture of him yet.

Haircuts!

I haven’t had much time for reading. I’m not sure why, I just haven’t felt like reading or writing. I spend the evenings with the boys and then when they go to bed, I’m so exhausted I go to bed too! Must have something to do with it getting dark so early. I have been listening to my audiobook to and from work and that’s really the only reading that I have done lately. I just finished it.

This is a really good book and I had no idea that it was based on real people! I have never heard of Sarah and Angelina Grimke and their work as the first women to fight for equal rights for women as well as equal rights/abolition of slavery! I would encourage everyone to read this book. It’s very good!!

This was C’s 2nd Winter Youth Rally and L’s first. They had a good time and learned a lot they both said. Logan was shocked at how well some of the other kids knew their Bible and said that he’s going to study harder so he can come back next year ready to compete! Ha!

The Winter Youth Rally is just for kids ages 11-18, so I had to piddle around until they got out. It was 1.5 hours away from home, so I had to keep myself occupied. The first day (Monday), E was with me (K was with my sister) and we went to Kohl’s, got some great deals and went to McDonald’s for lunch. He played at the Play Place while I wrote letters. A win-win for both of us!! Tuesday, my mom watched K & E and I only had to entertain myself which was so strange!! I would have shopped but was broke. Luckily, I brought my laptop and letters so I worked on homework some and wrote letters some.

I’m trying to get totally caught up on my correspondence by the New Year, and while I’m very close I don’t think I will make it. Maybe I should extend my goal to Jan 5th (that’s when the boys and myself go back to school/work).

On the way home from the Winter Youth Rally on Tues, we stopped at the library because everyone was out of books. Christian got a few (mystery and fantasy), Logan got a R.L. Stein book and an Encyclopedia Brown book and I got 4 books. All 4 I will be able to mark off of my 2015 reading challenge! Yea!

Book #1 is an audiobook=I have to drive 1 hour to & fro when I work, so it’s a great opportunity to “read” plus it makes the drive go by so much faster AND it’s relaxing! Complies with the Reading Challenge “a book you chose based entirely on its cover”.

Book #2: I don’t know much about this story, so I’m interested to see what I find out! Complies with the Reading Challenge “a nonfiction book”.

Book #3: Looks interesting, plus it complies with the Reading Challenge “book with antonyms in the title”.